SynthEyes makes short work out of tracking areal footage. What if you wanted to add a new building into the shot accurately, but didn’t have a site plan for reference. Rather than just guessing where exactly the new building would be, why not use Google Maps as a 3D mesh in SynthEyes for reference?

use a flat plane textured with images from Google Maps as a reference (in lieu of a site plan)

One of the problems with adding new elements to areal footage is that although it is easy to get a track, wrangling the tracked scene into accurate scale and reference.

Here, Russ Andersson shows how you can use a 3D mesh as a reference for a camera only match move, using a flat plane that has an image reference right from Google Maps. This will make it easier to know exactly the geometry of the shot, where buildings and roads are, and where exactly your new building or effect can go.

This will really save you from having a number of “try and see” attempts in placing the newly tracked object in the scene, and give you some pretty accurate information for adding elements while tracking areal footage.